Authorized User Necessary anymore?

[Toastmaster]

About three years ago when my wife and I started our respective (Credit) journeys, we became authorize users on each other's CapitalOne rebuilder card.  

Long story short, we are both in the 750's FICO range and:

I have 5 cards now, in addition to the Capital One Rebuilder.

She has 3 cards now, in addition to the Capital One Rebuilder.

We are authorized users on all of these cars of ours lol.

I thought that it would make sense in the past to be authorized users To make it look like we have more credit between us then it really was.  We know that that wasn't fooling anybody but we still thought it made our credit reports look better.

Now I think it just makes our Credit Reports look messy with all these extra authorize user accounts.

Or does it?  I'm thinking about closing all the AU accounts now that we can have our own credit cards, since there's no longer any advantage (real or perceived) from having extra card accounts appearing on our credit history. What do you guys think? Should I close them or leave them be?  Thanks!

[AutisticPretzel]

While AU accounts are never a replacement for primary tradelines, I think they can still serve a purpose under the right situations - Mainly to help balance out utilization of your primary limits are high and/or add to the average age of your accounts.

For example, I recently opened up 7 or so accounts in the past few months. I know that when they all report, my average age of accounts is going to take a pretty big hit. If I had the benefit of adding an AU account with maybe 7 - 10 years of history, I could drastically minimize the impact to my age of accounts and my profile wouldn't draw any scrutiny because it's only one AU account.

The best way to build credit will always be to establish your own primary tradelines, but having a couple AU accounts could certainly serve their purpose in the right situation.

[ptatohed]

My wife applied for maybe 20% of our cards and I am an AU.  I applied for 80% of our cards and she is an AU.  I never thought anything of it.  

[coldfusion]

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@AutisticPretzel wrote:
While AU accounts are never a replacement for primary tradelines, I think they can still serve a purpose under the right situations - Mainly to help balance out utilization of your primary limits are high and/or add to the average age of your accounts.

For example, I recently opened up 7 or so accounts in the past few months. I know that when they all report, my average age of accounts is going to take a pretty big hit. If I had the benefit of adding an AU account with maybe 7 - 10 years of history, I could drastically minimize the impact to my age of accounts and my profile wouldn't draw any scrutiny because it's only one AU account.

The best way to build credit will always be to establish your own primary tradelines, but having a couple AU accounts could certainly serve their purpose in the right situation.

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Insofar as being a credit building exercise one needs to understand how creditors react to them.  Due in part to prior abuse of the AU feature (individuals with aged high-CL cards were selling AU access to allow utilization/AAoA padding, getting caught pretty much guarantees account closures) creditors nowadays tend to filter out those accounts when evaluating creditworthiness.    

BTW you can trigger a small (< 10 points is typical) FICO scoring penalty if you have accounts reporting you as an AU but none of those accounts is also reporting a balance.

[Kforce]

I use AU cards for better rewards, with lesser card count

All family members have 830+ Ficos and enough cards

A 6% grocery card, my wife, kids and I all use that card for groceries

5% gas, we all use that card for gas.

One can also each get the same 5% card, in effect doubling the monthly/quarterly cap on spend.

All my reward cards have AU's except the Cash+ because rewards were in categories where card lived in a sock drawer

Better rewards with smaller card count by maximizing correct category spend and not duplicating reward categories

Why would each family member want to duplicate grocery, restaurant, gas cards, etc. (Except: Spend > Cap)

Maybe time to use AU, just for a different purpose

[longtimelurker]

OT, but what are the rules for mobile wallets?   One card can be shared in several wallets and at some stage, my wife and I had the same card in our phones, when she wasn't an AU on that card.   Somewhat invisible to the issuer (like giving someone your card to use but without any ID issues!), but what do they think?

[Kforce]

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@longtimelurker wrote:

OT, but what are the rules for mobile wallets?   One card can be shared in several wallets and at some stage, my wife and I had the same card in our phones, when she wasn't an AU on that card.   Somewhat invisible to the issuer (like giving someone your card to use but without any ID issues!), but what do they think?

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Nice work around.

Now if I ever give up my flip-phone for a smart one !